37. Janie
Chapter 37
Janie
M y date leaned closer. The smell of his acrid cologne wafted up my nostrils again. I plastered the sweet—but fake—smile on my face as the urge to run pulsed through my core. “You’re awfully pretty, Janelle.”
Yes, we devised a fake name for me.
I nodded. “Awww, thank ya, darling.”
His hand sat on my thigh and it took all my being not to hurl. It all comes back to the same thing: Meical was my mate. Everything was circling to this moment.
“Can I see you again?”
My eyes flicked around for Urien and Meical, but they had left the spot they were at. I swallowed nervously. A wave of panic crested through me. What if I was alone? “I’m not sure yet. There are some things you have got to feel a bit later. Ya know.”
“When you touch yourself?—”
I sucked a breath in as more nervous flutters filled my stomach. Or was that vomit? “Woman’ s secrets,” I whispered in more of a flirty tone than I truly wanted. Added a fake giggle. Perfect.
His hand creeped further up my leg and I swallowed my disgust. There was a clap on the table, and Urien popped into my vision. My shoulders relaxed as he looked at me with a grin.
“Is that you? It’s been so long since I saw you. Oh no! Is this a date? Did I interrupt something?” he exclaimed. He grabbed a chair, the screeching clanked through the coffee shop, and sat down. The date—what was his name again?—pulled his hand back.
“I think we’re wrapping up. I’ll text you later?” he said as he stood up.
I leaned into the table and waved. “See you then.”
He walked away, and I leaned back into the chair. “Fuck. Please tell me he was the guy and I’m done.”
“It’s not him.”
“Where’s Meical?” Was I disappointed that he didn’t save me? He promised me I would be safe.
Urien shrugged, and I stood up. I walked to my car and saw a dark shadow inside the front seat. I opened the door and slammed myself in the front seat. “Why did Urien have to get me out of there?”
Meical, in his human form, but the color of his forearms shifted from normal human shade to pitch black. “I would have killed him and blown my cover. I couldn’t,” he hissed.
“How can I trust you?” I winced. After days of talking about trust and all that, something about the way I said this sounded too harsh.
Meical turned to me and his eyes changed to pitch black. His true form hovered on the surface. “If Urien couldn’t have shifted things, I would have eaten him alive. Fuck my cover.” He reached out and grabbed my face. Meical’s lips crashed against mine as he pulled me closer. Claws scratched at my scalp while his monstrous tongue slipped between my lips. Heat grew inside my body as I remembered what his tongue felt like between my legs.
He pulled back and his arms were jet black at this point. “I smell your need. Do you want me to drive and I can help relieve some of your aches?”
My eyes widened as my mouth fell open before I snapped it shut and turned to the steering wheel. “I’ll drive home.”
“It would make me feel better.”
“Do your same stuff. Wrap yourself around me as a comforting blanket. Maybe it’s not me you do that for. You do that to reassure yourself that I’m here. I’m yours and I can’t escape you,” I muttered as I slammed my keys into the ignition. I quickly drove out of the parking lot toward home. As I drove, more and more shadows wrapped around my calves and my torso.
“I am afraid,” he whispered. “What if I never convince you to be mine?”
“I’ve been on more dates with assholes than I have with you, and I’m your mate.”
“We’ve had dates in your dreams. A couple. Before I pushed you.”
“Cause you wanted to be corporeal?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I needed you. I’ve needed you for so long. I didn’t realize it till I saw you for the first time.”
I nodded as I pulled into my parking spot. “Home sweet home.”
“Only with you.”
My face warmed as I ducked my head behind my hair while I opened the car door. I slammed the door shut as I walked to my apartment door. Once I walked to it, the door swung open as the shadows slipped out of the knob. I turned to Meical, who was grinning from ear to ear as he leaned against the wall. “Ladies first.”
I sighed as I strolled through the doors. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“I think it’s customary for a partner to open the door for the other.”
My hands gripped the bottom of my shirt and pulled it over my head and threw it in the dirty laundry. “So, one more date?”
“Yeah, but Urien isn’t positive about that. From the two we have felt, they have just been your normal assholes.”
“God, I hated this one. Fucking lech.”
Meical leaned forward and touched my cheek. A shadow wrapped around my waist and pulled me closer. “It’s because you’re mine. Even your soul knows this,” he whispered.
“Hand me my pjs,” I demanded, trying to change the subject.
He sighed and stepped away. “As you wish,” he mumbled, and a shadow placed them in my hand.
I smiled. “Thank you.” I quickly tossed off my bra and slipped my baggy pants and shirt on my body. “You didn’t get my hoodie.”
“I can’t wait till I don’t have to go on any of these dates. I wonder which one of them might have her?”
“It can’t be the ones we’ve seen. It has to be the last one.”
“And we’ll save her?”
“Yes. I wish it was easier to search through all the shadows. But there are so many corners and crevices, I’m not omnipresent.”
I stepped back toward him and hugged him. “Thank you. I know she’s not my best friend or anything. But she matters to me.”
A shadow petted the back of my head. “Anything for you.”
“Can you hold me while I sleep?”
He pulled me closer. “Always.”
We tumbled into the bed together and he held me close. I sighed and fell asleep.